


Echo Chamber

by duc



Series: Double Agent Vader ficlets [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Double Agent Vader, Fiallerils AU, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 18:31:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7372870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duc/pseuds/duc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia (and Luke) shared an important secret with the crew of the Millenium Falcon. Chewie tells Han they should feel honored. Han is of the opinion they only did it for the discret practice space and so far? He’s not feeling honored. </p>
<p>Or, Han and Leia delight in pulling each other’s pigtails.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echo Chamber

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Shape-Changer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4678835) by [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/pseuds/Fialleril). 



> Little ficlet from Fialleril’s Double Agent Verse. They’re graciously letting me borrow their sandbox again.

Considering that the latest Rebel base was pocket sized, Han really should not have had any problem locating the princess, but he had gone through the mess, the barracks, Intelligence and the hangar and still no sign of her. He was down to wandering aimlessly and pushing random doors.

With the way the last two missions had gone - and if it had been anyone else - Han might have been checking cupboards and closets to see if she had squirreled herself away in a corner to curl up and cry. Since it was Princess Leia of house Organa, he didn’t bother. Leia didn’t get weepy, Leia got even. So if anything she would be pouring over datapads, plotting how to make the Empire pay.

He opened a new door and was greeted by thumping noises. Someone had apparently managed to squeeze in an exercise room in their micro base, including a couple of practice dummies and Leia was in the process of beating the tar out of one of them.

_Yep,_ thought Han. _Plotting to make the Empire pay, or taking her frustration on an inanimate object. That was her Highness alright._

She turned to look at him when she heard the door swish open but turned back and proceeded to kick the dummy in the head, hard. Han stepped in and watched her throw a serie of punch. She was being enthusiastic enough about it that she was breathing hard. He watched some more.

“Why don’t you just use ‘the Force’?” He asked when he got tired of the silence.

Leia stilled. She looked around automatically, checking that they were alone - As if Han would ever be so unprofessional as to run his mouth where people could hear. He might not fully believe in her and Luke’s mumbo jumbo, but he knew it was deadly serious and would never betray their confidence. - When she reassured herself that her little secret hadn’t been blown open she faced the dummy again.

“What do you mean?” She asked finally, eyes fixed on the dummy.

“Why don’t you use the Force instead? Could do a lot more damage, right?” he voiced it like a dare.

The dummy was one of the nice ones, the kind that lit up when an area had received enough force to damage a living being. It was not even half lit. Han was starting to maybe - _maybe -_ consider acknowledging that there was something to this Force thing Luke - and in private Leia - wouldn’t shut up about. But so far he wasn’t exactly awed by its power.

The princess hummed but didn’t bite. “Damage,” she said. “Is not the point.” She hit the dummy in the face and the nose dutifully lit up.

“What’s the point then?”

“Venting,” Leia said, as if it was obvious. “Using the Force is not as satisfying.” A high kick. Then she cocked her head and looked at Han. “And... potentially counterproductive.”

“Because beating the shit out of a stuffed plastic shell is productive.”

He moved to the side of the dummy, leaning on the one next to it, just in time to see her roll her eyes.

“You know very well what I mean.” She said

Then she raised her fists again and set to ignore him. There was a specific quality to her body language when she did that. Han knew it very well.

“Hey, hey, oh come on, I’ll play nice. Tell me why it’s _counter_ productive.”

He was being nosy and he didn’t care. Back after Yavin, if you had told him that Luke and the princess were not really dating, merely pretending to be to have an excuse to spend time together alone, Han would have been - not relieved, because he didn’t care who Leia dated - but something. But if anything this was worse. Because now the kid and the princess had their own little world they shared. And it was a world Han was irremediably excluded from. Perversely, that made him curious.

He still didn't believe in the Force, though... Mostly... He was 70% sure it wasn’t real....

“It’s... “ the princess started, “You have to be careful when using the Force in anger it can... It’s hard to explain,” she bit her lip, searching for words. “The thing with using the Force in anger,” she started again. “Is that the Force can amplify it, send it back toward you. In that mindset, hitting things with the Force doesn’t make you feel better, it makes you feel _angrier_. Hence, counterproductive." 

“Uhuh,” Han said.

“If you don’t pull back when you feel it take hold,” Leia continued as if she hadn’t heard him, literally hadn’t heard him, she looked lost in thoughts. “It wraps your entire thought process, like an echo chamber. Feeding and building on itself.”

“That so?” Han raised an eyebrow. _Why was it every time he heard someone explain a Force phenomenon it sounded like it came from someone on spices?_ Being a supportive friend would be so much easier if the kid and the princess could make their life choice sound sane.

Leia, who had an eerie sense of when he was mocking her, even from the privacy of his own head, raised her chin in response.

“Yes,” She said, “In fact, once you start down that road, extracting yourself from that echo chamber takes years of work, from what I’ve been told. Also...” she continued, utterly matter of fact. “It turns your eyes yellow.”

_Wait what?_

“What?” he says out loud.

“It turns your eyes yellow,” The princess said nonchalantly as if she was repeating a minor detail from a scouting reports. But her facade cracked for a second, her lips twitched and Han saw the glint in her eyes.

_Well if that was how she wanted to play it._

“Fine,” He huffed. “I’ll let you 'vent' in peace.”

  
He stalked out of the training room. He was just asking honest (mostly) questions!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sometimes as Many as Seven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140005) by [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/pseuds/Fialleril)




End file.
